Principles of Marketing Report: Robocut Mowers, Spring 2020

This report analyzes the application of marketing principles to Robocut Mowers, focusing on new product development, market orientation, and customer attraction. Task 1 examines the crucial role of marketing in these areas, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer preferences and competitive advantages. It also explores the advantages and disadvantages of a market orientation approach, highlighting its impact on product differentiation and customer satisfaction, as well as the challenges faced by a new company. Furthermore, it assesses the influence of social and legal factors on Robocut Mowers' expansion plans, considering lifestyle, income status, family size, export/import restrictions, income tax, and product taxes. Task 2 details the marketing mix for a new Robocut product launch, covering product features, placement in a supermarket chain, affordable pricing, and social media promotion. It also discusses how extensive marketing planning can negatively affect the marketing mix. Finally, Task 3 delves into the pricing structure, emphasizing affordability and the characteristics of product and service differentiation, including value creation and consistency.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
TASK 1
1a.
The role of marketing in the process of new product development, expansion and
attracting customers is very crucial. The application and function of marketing is aimed
towards the business process of generating relationship for satisfying customers with the
product offerings of Robocut Mowers. The functional areas of marketing will concentrate on
contracts/customers by understanding the preferences of the target audience, which in this
case are the aspect of huge investment and the detection of lawn wildlife. Marketing will
enable the function of communication of the competitive advantage of Robocut Mowers Ltd.
Marketing can stimulate the decision of selecting distribution channel based on the
understanding of customer preferences and convenience (Armstrong et al. 2018). Marketing
can allow the initiation of sales activities by attracting contracts through valuable pricing and
engaging communication content. Engagement marketing will allow the business of Robocut
Mowers Ltd. to understand the issues regarding the existent competitors and their offerings
and will help in communicating the message about the competitive advantages or value
offerings in the form of a response to their stated or identified problems. Marketing will
contribute towards allocating suitable price offerings, selective marketing communication
channel and feasible distribution medium for attracting desirable set of target contracts in the
year 2020. After the identification of pricing, distribution and communication channel, the
company Robocut Mowers Ltd. can associate the product offerings with service management
for combining the factor of tangibility with intangible elements. The company can utilize the
application of marketing by selecting various promotional tools like, advertising through
visual or print media. Lastly, marketing will positively contribute towards matching customer
demand/problem with product offerings.

2PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
1b
The approach of market orientation allows businesses to prioritize the preferences and
needs of the target audience for associating product and service offerings with the aim of
satisfying the identified problems and needs. Market orientation is a function that will focus
on the process of identification the needs of the desirable group of contracts for the Robocut
Mowers Ltd. in order to match the product and service offering. Marketing orientation
approach includes a long process of decision-making (Ozkaya et al. 2015).
The advantages of implementing marketing orientation approach in the product
building and client attraction of Robocut Mowers can be reflected in the aspect of customer
attainment. Market orientation approach will allow the company to understand the concerns
of the target clients and can be used as a base for introducing improvements in the product
features of Robocut and its associated customer service values. The aspect of responding in
accordance with the identified concerns can enhance the existing strategy of word-of-mouth
promotion and will incorporate high level of customer satisfaction. Another advantage can be
reflected in the applicability of market orientation approach in strategizing product
differentiation decision (Baker and Sinkula 2015). The information extracted from this
approach can be utilized for designing the differentiation values that can be a direct link for
the Robocut manufacturing company. Product differentiation will allow reflecting better
value in comparison with the existing competitors (Bagozzi et al. 2018). The identified issues
regarding the pricing structure, cost of replaceable parts, availability and the failure in
detecting lawn wildlife like hedgehogs can be responded by the strategy of incorporating the
factor of affordability, better battery life for effective functionality, affordable replacement
battery and a system detecting lawn wildlife. The process of implementing optimum strategy
can directly respond the expressed needs and preferences of the target group of clients.

3PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
The disadvantages of marketing orientation approach for Robocut Mowers Ltd. can be
subjected to the orientation of a new company. One of the disadvantages of marketing
orientation approach is the associated cost in implementing the procedures (Chernev 2018).
The company is fairly new in business and is still in the process of expansion in association
of the deal with a well-known chain supermarket, investing a significant amount of cost in
marketing research for extracting the information regarding the existent accurate concerns
and preferences of the target customers can be a challenge for the Robocut manufacturing
company. Constant product improvement and strategy modification can lead to high
expenses for the company. Another disadvantages of marketing orientation approach for
Robocut Mowers Ltd. can be portray the challenge of executing the planning process. Even
though the company can outsource the function of market research, but for facilitating the
planning stage in the presence of 25 employees can be challenging. The waiting period can
extend the deadline of the actual product development schedule due to the sole focus on
responding to customer demand and concerns.
1c.
The factors like social and legal can influence the plan of the company to expand its business
are social and legal factors.
Social factors-
Lifestyle: The lifestyle of individuals living in the country of expansion will
determine the success or failure rate of the expansion plan of Robocut Mowers Ltd. as
the company will target customers with the state of having a lawn in the backyard of
the house and busy lifestyle due to the pressure at work will be targeted for
responding to the concern of maintaining their lawn areas (Gollnhofer and Turkina
2015).

4PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Income status: Income status of the customer group will majorly influence the success
or failure of expansion plan as the company will target middle to high income group,
where the disposable income is high in a household.
Family size: Family size can be considered as another factor that can affect the plan of
expansion as the family size can almost determine the size of the lawn (adults with
kids) and it can also reflect the concern of cleaning and maintaining lawn themselves
in spite of spending time with the family.
Legal Factors-
Export and import restrictions: The import and export restrictions in a country can
majorly affect the expansion plan of a business. Stricter rules in regards with import
and export laws can negative impact the effectiveness of the business expansion of
Robocut Mowers Ltd.
Income tax: The corporate and individual income tax structures can influence the
buying decision of individuals and businesses as it will determine the existence of
high or low disposable income, thereby affecting the business expansion plan (Hitt, Li
and Xu 2016).
Taxes on products- The expansion plan of business can be impacted by the taxes
imposed in product offerings, which can influence the buying decision or value
perception of target customers.
Task 2:
2a
The marketing mix of the new product, which is to be launched under Robocut
Mowers Ltd. in the chain supermarket during the spring of the year 2020, can be presented
below:

5PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Product: The product features of Robocut will be concentrated on the planning of responding
to the need and concern regarding lawn maintenance devices. The product features will
include, smaller in size and lighter in comparison to the available product offering of the
competitors like John Deere, Hitachi, Stihi and Honda. The product, Robocut will be
incorporated with the feature of detecting and assessing the presence of lawn wildlife like
hedgehogs for their protection. The replaceable parts of the robot will be easily available. The
product will also reflect a lengthier battery life, which will in return increase the efficiency
and effectiveness of the service offered through a robot. The product offering will act as a
solution for accommodating the service of maintaining lawn areas of the household for
adding to the free time of the owners, which can be spent with families and friends
(Weinstein and Pohlman 2015).
Place: The availability of the product is planned in a large supermarket chain for the purpose
reaching to maximum audience and for optimum exposure in the market. The reason for
selecting supermarket chain as the ‘place’ for Robocut is the provision of reaching a large
base of customers at once. Reaching to a large base of contracts will contribute towards the
sales target (Išoraitė 2016). The decision of establishing a deal with supermarket will lead to
higher brand awareness of the new product, Robocut. It will also provide financial assistance
due to the establishment of the supermarket, where the product will be sold. Supermarkets
can also assist with the data extraction of the customers, which will positively contribute
towards the product development and innovation procedure.
Price: The product, Robocut will be affordable in comparison to the product offerings of the
competitors like Honda, Hitachi, Stihi andJohn Deere. The market price of a robotic lawn
mower can amount from 700 Pounds and more. The price of the new product of Robocut
Mowers Ltd. will be retailed at almost half the competitors’ price, 350 Pounds in spite of the
valuable features like, longer battery life, light weight and the ability to detect lawn wildlife.

6PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
The price of the replaceable batteries of the product will also be based on affordability with
the cost of 100 Pounds.
Promotion: The promotional tool that can be used for Robocut is social media advertising.
The company has just started in 2016 and has the plan for expanding its operation in the
spring of the year 2020, which will involve various costs like, increasing the workforce,
increasing the efficiency of manufacturing process for addressing the high anticipated
demand of the new product offerings. Thus, selecting a medium that will be project lower
investment and will be cost effective in terms of reach and scalability is social media
(Parsons and Lepkowska-White 2018). Social media platforms can promote the product
differentiation values to the target customer groups and will address the concern by using
customer-engaging content. Social media advertising can also facilitate the function of
market research by asking active users of social media about their concerns and preferences.
2b
The market mix of Robocut Mowers can be negatively affected by an extensive
practice of marketing planning:
Identification of weaknesses- Understanding weakness of a business is very crucial
for managing operational activities but the process of identifying weakness can shift
the focus from enhancing the strength of the business, which creates the competitive
advantage of Robocut.
Misinterpreted data- The process of data extraction itself can consume half of the
schedule of marketing planning. Moreover, data extraction can also involve high
investment. Interpreting the data needs a separate schedule for the purpose of
understanding the actual preferences and concerns of the customers. Any deviation in
data and interpretation tool can lead to a false marketing decision/strategy for the new

7PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
product launch. The risk of incorrect interpretation can lead to illogical financial
investment plan, which can result in the weakening of the whole plan of product
launch.
Task 3-
3a
The pricing structure of the Robocut lawnmower will be affordable in comparison to
the other global competitors. The affordable pricing can enable the company to imply paid
service and warranty features. The paid services for additional security for the lawnmower
and for receiving a warranty of five years will be easily accepted by the target customers in
addition of the affordable pricing. The paid services or intangible element of Robocut will be
perceived as an added value with product offerings. The characteristics of a product and
services can be differentiated as:
Value creation: The main difference between the characteristics of a product and
services is the value creation. The aspect of value creation differs in the product and
service offerings. Due to the association of tangibility factor with the product,
consumer group derives the values. On the other hand, in regards with service
offerings, service providers, due to the factor of intangibility, provide the value of the
service (Baker 2016).
Consistency: In association with the first difference of product and service
characteristics, consistency of product offerings are controllable and can be
standardized due to the involvement of structured operational process (Lusch and
Nambisan 2015). On the other hand, the consistency of service offerings cannot be
standardized due to point of service delivery, human beings are responsible for

8PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
delivery service for a particular solution or product, which cannot be controlled or
standardized in measurement.
Comparability: The quality of products can be compared with the quality of existing
products of the same company or existing global competitors of Robocut Mowers Ltd.
whereas, the quality of a service cannot be compared or measured in comparison with
the features or quality experienced in existing competitors (Chitty, D'Alessandro and
Gray 2019).
Storage: Product has the characteristics of tangibility, which can be stored for
addressing the upcoming demand. On the other hand, services cannot be stored for
later use or for addressing forecasted demand (Walker 2015).
3b
Every product has its own life cycle just like all the human beings have, starting from
its introduction to the ultimate end. The product life cycle can be divided into four stages,
namely – Introduction Phase, Growth, Maturity and then Decline. Almost all the
organizations try to invest more into the new products rather than the existing old products
because the new products tend to be at a growing stage (Loveland 2015). In the given case it
can be seen that Robocut lawnmower has become globally famous and there are various
companies like Husqvarna, Honda, Hitachi, John Deere and Stihl who produces the same.
The Robocut Mowers offered by these globally renowned companies are very costly and
hence the Gardiner brothers decided to produce these mowers at a cheaper cost. The new
product that has been decided to be launched by the company has a longer battery life, it is
very light weight and small, the cost of replacement of the battery is cheaper and has
affordable wildlife detection.

9PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
The strategies to be implemented in introduction phase, considering above discussed
decision is the rapid penetration strategy. This strategy tries to place a product in the market
at a low price with excessive promotional efforts. It helps in faster penetration in market and
acquiring a larger market share. The low price with respect to its competitors will increase
company’s customer base. Increased demand will result to an increased production, which in
turn will reduce per unit cost and increase the profits.
The strategies to be implemented in the growth phase are other improvements in the
products. The company can acquire customer feedbacks in the introduction phase and can
take responses from the customers about more features that they would like. This would
enable the company in adding up the features on the basis of the customers’ needs and
preferences. The case states that the employee base is low, which means there can be problem
with the distribution facilities. The company can therefore in this phase try for improving its
distribution facilities by making forward and backward integrations and employing more
people for the same. The models can be redesigned and be made lighter and user friendly,
which would attract more customers (Stark 2015).
At the maturity stage the demand is usually stagnant. The marketing strategies that
can be adopted in this stage are the product modification, quality improvement, feature
improvement and modification in the marketing mix. The safety, efficiency, durability and
other such qualities of the product can be enhanced. Marketing mix modification will include
changing the 4 Ps of the mix that is changing the price, adopting different promotional
policies like promoting through word of mouth and using social media like Facebook, twitter,
Instagram and YouTube (Phillips and Moutinho 2018).
At the declining stage the product needs to undergo a lot of changes. The company
has to look for the exact needs and preferences of the consumers and must take a survey as in

10PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
where exactly the consumers needs the changes t o be done. The taste and preferences of the
consumers keep on changing and hence in the declining phase the products either needs to be
dropped or need lot of modification. The product needs to undergo a lot of technological
innovation in this stage and needs to come up in the market as a product with new features
(Lewnes and Keller 2019).
TASK 4-
4a.
Relationship marketing aims in creating a long –term healthy relationship with the
customers. It tries to increase the customer loyalty and helps the customer to build trust o the
company. The new mower will be available at a cheaper price and it can also detect wildlife
around it, thereafter ensuring that no wildlife is harmed during mowing the lawns. This
particular feature of detecting the wildlife actually increases the customer loyalty
(Kleinaltenkamp, Plinke and Geiger 2016). It is because the customers feel that the company
is responsible about the environment and the lives of the wildlife. If the company can take
feedback from the customers once or twice after the sales are completed, then it would also
help in retaining the customers for a long term (Haider et al. 2019). Taking of feedback
makes the customer feel that the company has concerns over the customers regarding their
satisfaction on the product and are ready to make the changes as per their requirements to
increase the satisfaction (Zhang et al. 2016). If the company can ensure that the technologies
they are using are not depleting enough resources and are not at all harmful for the users, then
it can also build more trust. Corporate social responsibilities will also ensure a long-term
relationship with the customers (Philip, Armstrong and Opresnik 2018).
4b
Communication plan for Robocut Mowers Limited using SOSTAC model:

11PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
Situational analysis-
Competitive advantages: It will have lower price as compared to competitor’s
lawnmowers. It has the ability to detect lawn wildlife unlike competitors’ product,
which has been a concern in the communities of Europe.
Marketing mix: Marketing mix of the company has been structured based on the
factor of offering values that can satisfy customers and which can communicate the
competitive advantages of the product offerings of Robocut Mowers Limited (Nuseir
and Madanat 2015).
Communication channel: The company is not using the best suitable tools for
communicating their value offerings amongst the customers. Dependence on word of
mouth will not be the optimum solution for the company’s plan of expansion (Smith
2018).
Objectives-
Mission: To expand the market and respond to the increasing concerns and
preferences regarding the aspect of maintaining and cleaning lawn areas.
Business objectives:
 To offer valuable and innovative product to mass population
 To understand the preferences and need of customers in order to improve the
marketing strategies or product development
 To build customer awareness about an affordable, better valued robotics
lawnmowers.
Business communication objectives:
 To communicate the product competitive advantage amongst mass audience